Smallmouth and Rock Bass at the "Chu"

Today DJ and I went fishing at Wachusetts Reservoir ( from here on out I will be referring to it as " the Chu" or simply "the lake". Both NOAA and AOL weather predicted a very cloudy morning followed by more clouds than sun in the afternoon. Knowing smallmouth ( our main objective) are more active under low light conditions we decided last night to make a day catching feisty bronzebacks.
I sure wish the weatherman would have been right... By the time we got to the lake, it was sunny with big puffy clouds in the sky. We were both disappointed but made the best of it knowing we were fishing either way.The last and only time we ever fished there was two years ago. It was a bluebird day and we didn't catch anything, although that day we were after salmon and lakers. The Chu is a 4000 acre lake it is surrounded by forest to protect the water which is drinking water for Bostonians. To get to the water you go through gates. All the gates are numbered and that is how you refer to the lake. An example would be " Fishing was really good at gate 6." The gates closest to the dam are off limits,again to protect the water supply.

We started at Gate 10. DJ was using a 1/16 oz jig with a small shad body. I started with topwater with no avail. Within about 15 minutes DJ hooked the first smallmouth. It wasn't big, but it was the first fish either of us ever caught in the lake. I switched to a 3 inch grub and landed my first smallmouth. After 20 more minutes, fishless, we moved to another gate. Our plan was to cover as much water as we could until we found fish. We moved to Gate 6.

At Gate 6, I still had my grub on. DJ used his shad body most of the day until he switched to worms late afternoon. While walking the beach casting my grub, I hooked and landed a rock bass. It wasn't small maybe 8 inches. It was my first rock bass ever. I definitely didn't expect to catch one on a 3 inch watermelon grub on an 1/8 oz jig. After I let it go I tried for a few more minutes without any luck. On a side note, when I unhooked the fish, the grub flew up and hooked me in the lower lip. In the picture of me holding the rock bass, you can see blood about 1/2 below my lips. I guess the fish was a little happy to exact some revenge. I wanted to catch some more rock bass so I switched to plain old worms. I caught a small smallmouth but didn't get any more rock bass. DJ who was 100 yards away from me had his pole bend. When he reeled in he caught his first rock bass. We took some pics and let it go.

Working the shoreline, DJ and I landed a couple more smallmouths DJ caught the biggest one by far. It was only about a foot, but two of mine were aquarium size. While all this was going on a pair of loons were watching us from about 150 yards out. Also DJ saw a bald eagle. He tried to point it out to me, but it went behind a forested island before I could find it in the sky. Two pretty awesome sites if you ask me, an eagle and a pair of loons.

After Gate 6 we went back to Gate 10 without any luck. We then went to Gates 17 and 18 which are both roadside. We were just exploring to see what the bottom consisted of. We tried to fish rocky areas for rock bass and smallmouth. We shied away from places with muddy bottoms or a lot of weeds. We can fish those places at home, we really wanted to catch our target species.

All together, it was only a so-so day fishing. My totals were 4 smallmouth, 1 rock bass, and two large bluegill. DJ caught 2 smallmouth ( but one was decent size) , and one rock bass. Who knows how we would have done if the weather folks would have been right. Oh well, I went to the Chu and didn't get skunked, fought one of my favorite gamefish, and caught a new species. I will definitely remember next May to try for smallmouth when the water temperature is perfect!

Bourne Braves of the Cape Cod Baseball League

As I wrote in my blogpost last year the Cape Cod Baseball League is a summer baseball league for college baseball players. It is considered to be the premier summer league in the country. One in 7 major leaguers has played in the league. The games are free. Go to any game along the Cape and you won't have to pay anything to get in. The food at the concession stand is very reasonable and the merchandise is nice quality for a decent price. For a night out you really can't beat it.
The games are extremely well played. It is a pitchers league. Although these are the best college hitters, many of the players are using wood bats for the first time. Also because they are all stars the fielding is really good. Many hits that would be hits in a normal college game are outs because of the great fielding in the league. For the most part they are the best players from all around the country. Most of the players in the league will be drafted by pro teams. Many of the kids will be first and second round picks.

Normally I go to the Wareham Gatemen home games. Wareham is the only team in the league on the mainland side of the Bourne Bridge. Its the closest field to get too. Also I love Spillane Field. It has plenty of bleachers and excellent sitelines. Today we went to Bourne and watched the Bourne Braves play against the Hyannis Harbor Hawks. Bourne plays right over the Bourne Bridge at Upper Cape Vocational High School. It is a beautiful field only dedicated in 2007. It was my first time to this field. Its only 1/4 mile from the bridge. There is plenty of parking and seating. There is also plenty of room for folks bringing lawn chairs.

I had a special reason for going to Bourne instead of Wareham. My friend Dave has a son that plays for the Braves. Chris Pickering is a pitcher that goes to URI. Tonight he pitched against Hyannis. While fishing with Dave yesterday, I asked how Chris was doing. When he told me he was in the Cape Cod League and was pitching tonight, there was no way I was missing that! DJ, Laurie and myself went down to the game. The Braves won 5-0. Chris pitched one hell of a game. He went 5 2/3 giving up no runs. He had 4 strikeouts and didn't give up a walk. He dropped his E.R.A. from .8 to .54. He is second in the league in E.R.A. giving up one run in 16.2 innings. Although I don't know Chris well at all, I have seen him pitch before in high school. It was awesome rooting for someone that lives in our area. Local boy making good.

I'm telling you if you like baseball it is worth your time going to a game at any of these fields. The atmosphere is amazing. I've been to my share of Sox games. If they win you feel good, if they loose you feel sick. Going to see these college kids is always a good time. For more info check out my blogpost from last year www.southernnewenglandoutdoors.blogspot.com/2010/06/cape-cod-league-baseball.html and also the league website http://www.capecodbaseball.org/

Choices... Is it Worth the Gas?

As we all know gas prices are through the roof. Gas has taken a much larger chunk of every families income over the last couple of years than it ever used too. Decisions have to be made on what is worth the price of gas and what isn't. It used to be, going somewhere meant how much you paid for a ticket. The price of gas was an afterthought. If a family wanted to go to Newport for example to enjoy one of its great restaurants and beaches, they had to think about which dining establishments were in their budget. With gas almost $4 gallon, now they are calculating how much it will cost just to get there and back.

For those of us that spend a lot of time fishing and being outdoors, decisions have to be made on what is worth the gas and what is not. For those of us obsessed with fishing, we would do it every day and night if we could. Of course life gets in the way, and we can't be fishing 24/7. We still get out every chance we can. So with gas costing double what it did before Katrina, we have to decide what is worth the money of 1/2 a tank and what is not. Reading my blog, you will notice I have done a boatload of fishing. I fish every chance I can. However, I am not driving to Narragansett and Charlestown, RI 3-4 times a week like I did seven or eight years ago. I thought I'd give you some examples of even though I still fish a lot, I have drastically cut back my driving.

Trout fishing-
Just by trout fishing so much during the spring I saved miles on my car and gas in my tank. I have four trout ponds within 15 minutes of my house. Falls Pond is about a 5 minute walk away. Whitings Pond is also in North Attleboro. The pond I fished opening day in Rhode Island is just across the border. The fly fishing only pond I love so much is only 15 minutes away. The truth is there is no reason to drive very far for trout. Almost every town in New England has a trout stream or pond. The ones that are stocked have plenty of fish to go around. I fished Fearings Pond in Plymouth a couple of times. One of those times I stayed at the campground over night. Its about an hour drive from my house. The night I stayed over, I fished for five hours and again another 3 hours the next morning before heading home. I tried to make as much of my long drive as possible.

Just by enjoying trout fishing so much this year, it saved me many miles by not chasing stripers as much this spring. Although I love stripers I was having so much fun with the trout I couldn't pull myself away. Fishing within a few minutes of my house instead of driving to the coast was just as much fun with a lot less effort.

Striper fishing-
Although I haven't striper fished as much as I normally do, I had another way to cut costs. I fished the bay a lot more than I normally do. I fished my spots in Providence ( 20 minutes) more than normal. I have a good high tide spot in Providence and another in Jamestown, I fished the Providence spot a lot and only made it to Jamestown once so far. Unfortunately, the bay was disappointing this year. Not many fish came in. Instead of having ten fish nights it was more like two or three. I understand there have been a lot of fish around Newport this year. I just couldn't justify the drive when I had guaranteed trout right up the street. Because the bay was disappointing, I had two options drive further away or fish for something else. As you can see by many of my posts trout filled the gap nicely.

Making choices...
Some of my plans for 2011 never came through. Part of the reason was not being able to justify the cost of gas and time. I'll give you an example. One of the things I wanted to do this spring was to fish Wachusetts Reservoir for lakers and salmon. Wachusetts is an hour drive for me. So it would be two hours roundtrip driving. I just never felt like doing that trip burning gas to go to a giant lake and hope to catch a fish. I've never fished for lakers or salmon, so if I caught one it would have been pure luck. Just going up myself blindly casting into a 4000 acre lake would have been like finding a needle in a haystack.
On the other hand, I made the run to Plymouth a couple of times. It was the same distance, gas and time, yet I felt more confident fishing the ponds there. I did reasonably well fishing even though the ponds I fished I'd never been to before this year.

"Necessity is the mother of invention" but it can also be the mother of discovery. We used to go to an ice cream place in Wickford,RI. It won Rhode Island Monthly's award for best ice cream in the state. We used to go down a couple times a year. Of course a 40 minute ride for ice cream isn't worth the effort. We went just for something to do. It was a fun way to burn a couple hours. Again being raped by oil companies, who can justify spending more on gas than ice cream. So we discovered a place in Mansfield, MA only a few minutes down the highway. Now we get ice cream without the drive. Flint Farm has a ton of flavors and the ice cream is delicious. The coconut is the best.
Same goes for largemouth bass fishing. My two favorite lakes are Lake Chauncy in Westboro and Whitehall Reservoir in Hopkington. Chauncy has huge fish. My best five fish limit t weighed 15 pounds including two five pounders. Another day I caught three pickerel over 22 inches in one morning. Not many ponds can match it for overall size of big fish. Whitehall Reservoir on the other hand is absolutely loaded with smaller bass and pickerel. Its nothing for DJ and I to catch 10 fish each.
But you know what, I have a ton of weedy bass lakes right near my house that are as loaded as Whitehall. They may not be as big,but they have just as many fish per acre. So I ask myself, why the hell don't I just fish these lakes 10 minutes from home?

I guess the whole point of this post is, I have to remind myself of my first ever blog post "Treasures close to Home" www.southernnewenglandoutdoors.blogspot.com/2010/04/treasures-close-to-home

I don't want high gas prices to ruin my fun. Maybe I'm sounding cheap by whining about the same gas that we all have to pay for. I know given the choice of fishing at Lake Chauncy once a week or fishing close ponds five days for the same amount of gas, I'll choose the close ponds. I may have to choose where I fish because of high gas prices, but I won't let it determine IF I fish. Besides, I can easily justify the spending $80 for gas for a three day in New Hampshire. I love it up there.

Other than gas, going to New Hampshire is surprisingly cheap for me. Camping is free for me because I know a few free legal camping spots on some back roads. Last time I went up to fish with Clay I went up Monday and came home Wednesday. I would have stayed another day, but I wanted to see the Bruins play Game 7. For food I ate 2 cans of Ravioli, 2 sleeves of fruit newtons, a couple packs of fruit snacks, 4 bagels ( unheated) and 2 Gatorades. The whole cost of lodging and food combined was about $6. Of course gas was about $75. I had a great time. I fished four hours Monday and another 7 on Tuesday. If my check engine light on my car wouldn't have came on, I would have gotten in another 3 hours Wednesday morning. Having that much fun and catching 23 brook trout is well worth the three hour drive each way to me.

So to sum up- Striper fishing although one of my favorite past times has not really been worth it to me this year. Having trout ponds all around has filled a void for me. I also have many carp and bass ponds within twenty minutes. I realized while writing this, I haven't fished many far away ponds on my "to fish list". Other than Wachusetts, I have also wanted to fish Stafford Pond in Tiverton and the Farmington River in Connecticut. I always seem to find excuses why I should fish somewhere else. Lastly, New Hampshire has it all, mountains, smallmouth lakes , trout lakes and streams and amazing scenery. Of course Vermont and Maine are beautiful, but I can make it to the Lakes Region in 2:20 and the mountains in less than three hours.

Going back...

When I was a teenager my mom bought an aluminum rowboat and a 6 horsepower Evenrude from one of her friends. My dad had a friend that lived on Falls Pond. Mr. Gibny was nice enough to let me keep my boat there all summer. I would fish from that rowboat every night. Before my parents bought that boat all I knew of fishing was how to drown worms. I would fish any chance I got but it was always fishing worms on the bottom. At the same time, I graduated 8th grade. My mom gave me a choice of a new cd player or $50 to buy anything I wanted. I bought my first $50 worth of lures. I bought a couple topwater lures, spoons, and crankbaits.

A few days after I bought my lures, I was fishing in Falls Pond. I caught a 13 inch largemouth. For whatever reason, I thought this fish was huge. I had caught big perch before. I guess seeing the big mouth made me think " trophy". I put it in a bucket and had my mom bring me to Airport Bait Shop to get it weighed. Although I thought I had a five pounder, it ended up being 1 pound 3 ounces. Realizing that I did not have a monster, I brought it back to the lake and let it go. For the next 7 years I was out in the boat almost every night fishing for largemouth bass. Falls Pond does not have a lot of bass and for that matter, very few large ones. Still I have so many great memories from those times. Most nights I'd only get between two- four fish and if I got a 14 incher it would be a good night.

This lasted way longer for me than most teenagers. I fished so often, I was naive to the fact that most of my classmates were at parties drinking on Friday nights. When I got a serious girlfriend, of course I spent time with her, and fishing went to the back burner.

Fast forward a few years after that. When DJ became old enough we went fishing all the time. Because the rowboat and motor were no longer around, a new Coleman canoe became our mode of transportation around lakes. We fished everywhere from Peters Pond in Sandwich to Lake Chauncy in Westboro. We were always looking for largemouth bass. We took trips to New Hampshire putting the canoe in smaller lakes in search of smallmouth. We had a great time and made a lot of memories

Then... I discovered stripers. I fell in love with striped bass almost instantly. It was amazing to me that the smallest stripers were bigger than anything I was catching in freshwater. Almost overnight, I gave up freshwater fishing to concentrate on stripers. I learned as much about stripers as fast as I could. Over winters I would scout out new places to fish for them.

Then... I discovered carp. Carp are as big as stripers, yet they live in freshwater. Actually if you count all the schoolie stripers, carp probably are of a much larger average size. Between carp and stripers I completely stopped fishing for largemouth bass. I would go a couple years at a time without fishing for them. Even when we put the canoe in freshwater, we usually did like we did the other night. Using small jigs catching a variety of small fish.

Fast forward to the present...

Gas is ridiculous. It used to cost me exactly $22 to go to Narragansett. I could buy 4 eels for six dollars and gas would cost me $14. I almost always caught fish. When I didn't catch fish it was usually because my spots were to rough due to offshore storms. Now to go to 'Gansett its roughly $30 not including eels. Fishing is not as good and the possibility of a skunking is extremely high.

I love going to New Hampshire, but realistically, I can't be doing that every week. If I could I would. I get more satisfaction catching brook trout on my fly rod, than I do just about anything else. Trout fishing in southern Massachusetts is just about over.

So... lately I have been going back to my roots. Saturday DJ and I fished Lake Mirimichi for small fish. Between us we caught 40 fish, mostly crappie. If you read that post, you know he killed me. Today I went out bass fishing in the rain. Using my favorite lures of Zara Puppy and a weightless rubber worm, I caught 5 bass and 3 pickrel in about two hours. The fish were really biting, but without my raincoat and my canoe flooding, there was only so much I could stand.

So I think, I am going to be spending a lot more time fishing for bass. Most of the lakes close to home have a lot of bass. Although there are some lunkers in all the lakes, quantity is what I will be fishing for. Lake Mirimichi, Turnpike Lake, and Norton Reservoir are loaded with bass and pickerel. Over the summer I will still carp fish and I want to go catfishing a few times. I do think you will see more lake reports from me about bass lakes. I'll let you know what I caught them on. I know I had fun catching bass today and it was a lot cheaper and a lot less effort than driving to Narragansett.

The picture is of a 14 inch bass caught today. Notice the rain drops. It just started raining while I was reeling this guy in. Then it really started to pour.

DJ is Killing Me Fishing

I haven't gone out much the last week fishing nearly as much as I would like. With the combination of friends coming over, giving DJ rides and still having this nasty head cold, life has not been about fishing to much. That said, I have gotten out twice since I got home from New Hampshire. Both times DJ has gone with me.

Saturday night we put the canoe in Lake Mirimichi which I think is on the Plainville/ Foxboro line. We brought 4 rods. Two equipped for bass fishing and two rigged with a small shad body and 1/16 oz. jighead for panfish. We never actually ended up bass fishing. The fish were hitting the shad really well. The nice thing about the little shad is anything will hit it. Although we usually use the 1 1/2 inch to 2 inch sizes, you wouldn't believe the variety of fish that will hit it. Big fish will hit it also.The first five pound bass I ever caught was on a two inch shad body and a small jig.

On this Saturday night DJ and I made a one dollar bet on who would catch the most fish. Usually its pretty close when we make this bet. The winner winning by a fish or two. Using the small bait usually means catching a lot of fish. To win, twenty fish is most likely needed. Well I only ended up with thirteen. DJ caught 27! He caught four different species. Largemouth bass, crappie, sunfish and yellow perch. For both of us the dominant species was crappie. It just so happened he doubled me plus one.

On Sunday I was getting texts from my friend Jeff Henderson that bass and blues were busting bait all over a spot in Barrington. I could not go because I had dropped my car at the mechanic Sunday afternoon to be fixed Monday ( my check engine light from my New Hampshire trip). Jeff ended up catching 18 stripers and blues. My car was fixed Monday so I went to Barrington Monday night hoping but not counting on a repeat performance from the fish. Jeff brought his son Matt and I brought DJ.

There were some fish around but they were not thick by any means. Once every ten minutes or so one of us would get a hit. All four of us caught fish. DJ, again, did the best. He landed three fish. Two blues and a striper. We think his striper although by no means a monster was the biggest of the night.

Although DJ likes fishing, like all teenagers he has different priorities. Getting him to go usually involves buying him food first. Sometimes he goes when he has nothing better to do.Looking back at fishing reports through this season, he is having a very good year

Pictures From New Hampshire

These pictures are from my last few days in New Hampshire. They are not in order but none the less here they are.
Great job Bruins!!!





Daisys at a picnic area





Waterfall on way to Three Ponds

Common Shiner in Clay's contraption






The one brookie kept of the 30 caught between Clay and myself over my time in NH. ( far right)

Clay you have to give your " contraption" a name
I'm thinking you call it "Tank" in honor of Tim Thomas's nickname, plus it makes sense

Close up of a shiner.

Try to tell me brook trout aren't as pretty as any aquarium fish. Click on it for a closer look.

This little pond is where we did most of our damange.

I caught this trout at Upper Hall.

This big guy was 15 inches long. ( far right)

Clay's bass. At this point I was still fishless.

My Day Fishing with Clay... Long post but worth it

Explanation 1
To get to the main body of this post I need to explain a few things first or else none of it will make sense. First off, I haven't blogged much mostly because I've been sick. Although the symptoms are nothing more than a cold, whatever I have has kicked the crap out of me. From Wednesday until Saturday, during those 96 hours I'm sure I was in bed for more than 85. By Sunday I could keep my eyes open for more than 20 minutes at a time, but still a massive head cold has persisted. I did fish for a couple hours on Friday and Saturday evenings, but I was back in bed as soon as I got home. Friday I got some trout and Saturday I met up with Jeff Henderson at Conimicut Point. He caught a couple schoolies and I got a 5 pound bluefish.

Explanation 2
Catch-M-All is a website/blog http://www.catchthemall.blogspot.com/ by a couple guys Clay and Dave up in New Hampshire. They also have columns in a couple New Hampshire newspapers. There goal and purpose of the blog is a quest to catch and eat all the freshwater species in New Hampshire ( except endangered species). They have the support of New Hampshire Fish and Game, who help quite a bit in fish identification.) Although one fish from each species becomes a "sacrificial lamb" it is great because it brings attention to all the other fish that live in New Hampshire waters. The site is quite popular and by catching non gamefish it educates the public about fish no one talks about. I can tell you that a brook trout will die at temperatures above 68 degrees and other facts about trout, bass and sunfish. However, I did not know what a blacknose dace or bridle shiner looks like until I started following their quest.

Explanation 3
After posting about my Memorial Day weekend, Clay who follows my blog suggested I go up and fish with him sometime. Since I enjoy talking to people that love talking about fishing, I quickly excepted his offer. We made plans to fish Tuesday ( June 14 at noon ). I drove up on Monday so I would not have to deal with Route 128 traffic at 9am

Now I can begin...
Monday afternoon I fished Upper Hall Pond before setting up camp. Upper Hall is about five miles in the woods on the worst dirt road you will ever see. Although it is a " roadside" pond, it is in the middle of no where. I put the kayak in. I ended up catching 5 small brookies in about 90 minutes. I had fun. As I was putting the kayak back on the car I heard a truck come down to the parking area. It turned out to be a game warden. He asked to see my license which I handed him. He asked if I was going out or coming in. I said I was coming in and asked how I did. I told him I caught five. He asked if he could have a look at them. I told him I had let them all go. He was surprised but, I did not need to be cleaning fish at camp later. At this particular lake the bag limit is only two. So if I would have kept those five, I would have been in deep crap. I always check the rules before I go out on any water body in New Hampshire. Even though I wasn't keeping fish, I still had to know that Upper Hall is a fly fishing only pond. So I did not use my spinning rod either. It goes to show, even five miles into the woods game wardens can show up anywhere. I was glad to see him. He was a nice guy and we talked a few minutes.

I left Upper Hall and set up camp north of Franconia Notch. On my way by the Notch, Profile Lake was glass calm and trout were jumping all over. It killed me to drive by, but I knew I had to set up my tent before I fished again. If not, I would be setting up in the dark covered by hundreds of mosquitoes and black flies itching ( pun intended) to make a meal of me. After a very speedy tent pitching followed by and equally speedy drive back to Profile Lake, I managed to start fishing about 6:30. I caught 9 more brookies the biggest going about 15 inches ( see photo). I also saw a beaver come off the shoreline and swim its way to within 15 feet of me before veering off. I fished until dark in the rain. I must have gotten 30 fly bites putting the kayak back on the car. I went back to camp and had a terrible night sleep coughing and sniffling.

Tuesady...
I had to meet Clay at noon at Lower Falls of the Swift River on the Kancamangus. I stayed in bed as long as I could stand but I was still up by 8:30. Sunrise is about 4:30 so at this point it was light out, well actually grey and overcast, but still bright enough I knew I should get out of bed. After I brushed my teeth I headed back to Profile for a couple hours fishing. No luck, the wind picked up so I did not feel like fighting it in the 'yak. I looked at my map and planned a route west of Lincoln on roads I'd never been on before. This would kill some time and I could see scenery I've never seen. After driving about twenty minutes, I came across this very fishy looking brook. With all the trout I've caught on the fly rod, I have never caught a trout in a river with my fly rod. I thought I had a good shot in this spot. I spent the next 40 minutes trying but I didn't even see a fish never mind hook one.

Fishing with Clay...
After my unsuccessful river foray, I headed down the Kanc to meet Clay. We both got to Lower Falls before noon. Our mission was to catch a brook trout. They had not caught one for the quest. If we got a brookie quickly, we would try to catch an assortment of shiners. I put on my waders and we went down to the water. He had twisted his ankle badly at this spot and was still noticeably limping around. We were told that trout were stocked in the river the day before and some big ones were swimming in the pool we were fishing. Unfortunately, they did not co-operate. Although I caught 14 brookies the day before, they proved much tougher this day. While we were at Lower Falls another game warden came down checking licenses. Two days in New Hampshire, two game wardens. After unsuccessfully fishing Lower Falls we moved to Rocky Gorge then finally a small pond back in the woods. After trying flies and worms Clay finally hooked a brookie on powerbait. It was about 10 inches long. Since the purpose of the quest is to catch and eat one of each species and not wholesale slaughter ( One guy and his sons kept 10 trout of those stocked in Lower Falls... is that necessary) we switched it up fishing for shiners. The shiners proved to be to small for our little tiny hooks so headed to another place.

Clay took me to a place in Conway that had all kinds of fish. From bass, pickerel chubs and shiners, the place is loaded. Again, fish were not cooperating. Clay caught one nice largemouth and I hooked a big pickerel but he cut the line. After fishing with this guy for 4 hours, I hadn't caught a fish. I felt like an amateur. Although I had a great time and conversation was good, I was embarrassed to say the least. I have wrote about trout number 50, trout number 100. I told Clay I caught 14 brookies the day before, yet I couldn't catch a lousy brookie, shiner, or sunfish. It was getting late. I had about 60 minute ride back to camp. We shook hands. I told him I had fun despite the skunking. I let him lead me out to the main road. Then he got out of his car and said he knew of a pond near his house that he had seen fish but never fished. He asked if I was game. I said I had a few more minutes and followed him.

The pond was not much bigger than a backyard basketball court, but there were fish jumping eating flies. We tied on tiny hooks with pieces of worms as small as a bread crumb. We were hoping for a new species of shiner. Actually Clay was, I was hoping for anything to pull my line. Within seconds of my first cast I hooked a small brook trout. Clay hooked one too. This little pond in the middle of a housing community had wild brookies or at the very least brookies put there as fry. We caught a whole bunch of brook trout but the pond also had golden shiners. We caught about 10 of those. I didn't catch one fish over seven inches but it was as much fun as any fishing I've done all year. The fishing was so fast, I forgot to count how many I caught. We estimated we got about 9 trout each. I could have gotten out my fly rod, but it would have been the same thing, one beautiful looking brookie after another. This was definitely a surprise and a great ending to the day. We fished for about an hour at this little spot. Clay made this contraption to photograph fish for id purposes. We put the brookies and golden shiners in it. It was perfect. You could get great pics of the fish while they were still in water and not being held in the air.

After the fishing we shook hands again and I took off. I arrived back at camp about 7 pm. All of the sudden tiredness ( is that a word) hit me. I was exhausted. I was asleep before dark. I had thought about hitting Profile for a couple hours or driving around looking for moose, but it did not happen.

Wednesday...
After falling asleep about 8 I was up at 4:30 am. I didn't mind, I wanted to get an early start. I decided last night I'd come home Wednesday when I found out the Bruins won and were playing a Game 7. I had a couple ideas but I wanted to be home around 3 pm. After packing up I went back down to Profile, again it was to windy to enjoy fishing. So I went to plan B. Plan B was to hike out to a remote pond near Campton. It was a 2.3 mile hike. I drove down to the trailhead. I packed up my gear but the mosquitoes were so thick that the bug spray didn't matter. I didn't make it 10 steps into the woods.Time for Plan C. Plan C was to drive even closer to home and fish Center Harbor. Clay told me about a place where rock bass are almost a guarantee. I've never caught a rock bass and was looking forward to catching some. Center Harbor is about 40 minutes off the highway. About 25 minutes off the highway my check engine light came on and my car bucked. I quickly turned the car around giving up for the moment my dream of catching a rock bass. When most peoples check engine light comes on people drive for weeks. It seems everytime mine comes on, my car dies. I wanted to be as close to home as possible if it happened. I made it home fairly easy. At higher speeds it ran fine. I brought it to my mechanic when I got home. Its a misfiring cylinder or a plug.

Wrap up...
The good news for both Clay and myself was neither of us were ax murderers. As you can see by the length of this I squeezed in a lot of fun into 2 1/2 days. I had an absolute blast catching the little brook trout in a place they had no bussiness being in.It was absolutely worth going fishless all day to catch them and the shiners. Clay was a cool guy. I had a great time fishing with him. I'm sure we will end up fishing together again. We both have the same passion for not only fishing but learning about fish and thier habits. Since this post is so long, I am going to only put a couple pics from the trip on it. I will add more pics in a seperate post in a day or so. Clay took more pictures than me, so I may take a couple from him later.

Believe it- Trout Still Hitting

I hadn't fished for trout since the Friday before Memorial Day in Massachusetts ( the day I got number 100). I figured I had a great spring and since I hope to get to New Hampshire a few times I'd give it up for other species.

Yesterday I felt like casting my fly rod so I drove down Wild Acre Road for a few casts. I really only planned on catching some sunfish to kill time. While I was there a boat came trolling by. I asked the guy if he caught any. To my surprise he said he got a couple rainbows but they were not biting like the day before. He said he got a bunch on Sunday. This surprised me because Falls Pond is a put and take fishery. I thought most of the trout were hiding in what few cool spots were left. So I thought I'd give trout at least one more chance for the year.

I went to the fly fishing only pond later that night. I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew there are enough sunfish and crappie there. So if the trout were all gone or dead, at least I'd have some action. I got to the lake at the same time as two other guys. They were fishing from the shore roll casting. There were some rainbows actively feeding on insects at the surface. It wasn't fast and furious, but enough were there I knew I wasn't wasting my time. Within five minutes I got my first trout.

The two guys on shore didn't catch any last night. However they told me that the night before they caught almost a dozen on wooly buggers. Most of the fish were out towards the middle tonight. They were doing nothing wrong. They just couldn't reach the feeding fish. I ended up catching five rainbows from the kayak and about 10 sunfish. All in the two and a half hours before dark. I couldn't believe how good it was.

The next three days are going to be hot. The temperatures are going to be 85, 91,96. If the trout can make it through this hot spell its supposed to cool off. Friday night, Saturday and Sunday are not going to be above seventy. Fishing might be good until after that. Obviously in the deeper ponds that trout do carry over the trout will survive the next few days, but they will be in deeper water and harder to catch. The smaller shallower ponds that don't thermocline are the ones to worry about. In places like Falls Pond and the warmer creeks trout fishing might be over by Friday but it wasn't as of yesterday!

Oh by the way my streak of consecutive times catching a trout ended while up in New Hampshire. It ended at thirty one. I can definately live with a streak ending after a month of consecutively catching fish every time out. I guess all I can do now is try to beat 31!

The Good, the bad, and the ugly...

I haven't had much to write about this past week. I know some of you actually check my site every day or so. Three things happened this week. None real significant ( except the ugly) but none the less here they are

The good...
Thursday ( we actually argued about what day we fished until I reminded him he stayed home from school Friday with a fever) DJ and I went to Narragansett to fish for stripers. We fished the salt pond inside Sprague Bridge. I caught a small keeper. DJ caught 2 fish on his fly rod the biggest was about 24 inches. No pictures

The bad...
Last night I went fishing with my friend Jeff Henderson in hopes of him catching his first carp. I showed him how carp fishing is different than fishing for predator fish. We went to a spot loaded with carp. Unfortunately we only got one run. I hope he gives it another chance. Jeff is a dedicated fisherman, so if he does it should be fun. No pictures.

The ugly...
My little friend Amber broke one of my fishing poles this weekend. It was in the trunk of my Santa Fe. She was outside playing with a neighborhood kid. For whatever reason she decided to get a water out of the trunk instead of come in the house. She closed the trunk on the rod and broke the top 8 inches off. Price of the rod new...$ 150. Needless to say I almost threw up. Not taking a picture as I need to forget about this asap!